CLEVELAND -- When Ann Wauters was selected as the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she was front-page news back in Brussels.

	Dan Hughes, left, was all smiles with son Bryce after being named the Rockers' coach last October.

But when the Cleveland Rockers took the 6-foot-4 center from Belgium, most American sports fans had the same reaction: Who?

"She wasn't a surprise to the coaches," said Rockers coach Dan Hughes, who had tracked the 19-year-old Wauters for more than two years. "They saw the same tapes of her that I saw. She was a surprise to people who don't follow the league."

If Wauters develops the way Hughes thinks she will, it might not be long before she's as well known in Cleveland as in her hometown of Sint-Niklaas.

Right now, though, Wauters is what coaches commonly refer to as a project.

She's raw, having only played basketball for seven years, the last two for USV Orchies in a French pro league. That's where Hughes, and several other WNBA scouts and coaches, first spotted her.

"She's not a finished product," the Rockers' first-year coach said.

But already, Wauters can do things on the court that make her special.

She runs the floor like a point guard. She can play near the basket or on the wing. She's a gifted passer, and like the great ones, Wauters seems to be one step ahead mentally of everyone else on the floor.

Oh, and she dunks, too.

No player in WNBA history has been able to throw one down during a game, and only a few have even tried. But if Wauters gets the ball on a breakaway, the woman from the Low Countries might make history going high.

"Maybe I'll do it in a game," said Wauters, who dunked during a scrimmage last year in France. "It's a great feeling. We'll see. With the smaller ball in America it might be easier."

Wauters missed the first two weeks of Rockers training camp and only arrived in Cleveland late last week. Following her first practice, Wauters was still in awe of her new surroundings.

"This is all so exciting," Wauters said, her cheeks still flushed following a trip to the weight room. "Everything is so organized."

During her first workout with the Rockers, Wauters got a taste of what to expect in the WNBA -- a shove here, a push there and maybe even an occasional elbow to the ribs.

Just like in the NBA, the women's game in the United States is much more physical than in Europe.

	“	(Wauters) is not a finished product. ... But I think she's a player who can grow. ”
		— Cleveland coach Dan Hughes

"It's more aggressive, that's for sure," Wauters said. "There's a lot more pushing."

Most of the pushing Wauters will do this season will be in the weight room. The Rockers have designed a workout program that they hope will bulk up Wauters' wiry, 194-pound frame.

She did some weight training in Europe, but Wauters knows she'll need to get bigger and stronger to be successful in the WNBA.

"I have to work on everything," she said. "The upper body, my legs, everything."

The only time Hughes saw Wauters play in person was two years ago in France when her team played host to the U.S. National Team, featuring Los Angeles star Lisa Leslie.

Leslie dominated most of the play down low, but what caught Hughes' eye was the way Wauters, then 17, moved on the floor. She ran with Leslie, and on a few occasions drove past her.

"She did things in the game that I thought were pretty interesting for a player that young," Hughes said. "A player with size and quickness. Lisa was way stronger and more physical. But Ann still had her times, and I thought, 'Dag gone, that's interesting.' "

Hughes never saw Wauters play again, relying only game tapes to make an evaluation on her. He expects her to play just 15 to 20 minutes a game this season for a team that had the worst record in the league in 1999.

"I don't want to put expectations on her," he said. "I don't think that's fair. But I think she's a player who can grow."

Wauters, the first Belgian-born player in the WNBA, visited New Orleans in her only previous trip to the United States. But just as basketball fans here wondered about her, Wauters said that before being drafted, she had never heard of Cleveland, either.

"I now know it is near a lake," she said. "It's big, but it's not too big."